Machoke’s 1997 Amada Sticker and the Pokemon Craze It Came From

Machoke No.270, Amada Pokemon Collector Sticker, 1997

A Battle-Ready Sticker, Not Just a Decoration

This is a single collector sticker from Amada’s Pokemon series, manufactured in 1997. The number “No.270” printed on its face is Amada’s own internal serial number — it does not correspond to Machoke’s National Pokedex number, which is 67.

What distinguishes this from purely decorative merchandise is the data printed alongside Machoke’s illustration. The face carries a shield-icon stat of 59, a starburst-icon stat of 117, a fist icon, and the level designation LV.16. An ice crystal symbol marked “x2” is understood to represent a type-weakness multiplier — Fighting-type Pokemon like Machoke are weak to certain opposing types, and Amada encoded that game mechanic directly onto the sticker’s surface.

These printed stats mark this as part of a specific line within Amada’s catalogue: stickers designed to double as playing pieces in an informal battle game children could run using only their own collections. One detail worth noting: LV.16 is a value specific to Amada’s own game system. In the actual Pokemon games, Machop evolves into Machoke at Level 28 — so a LV.16 Machoke is a design choice by Amada, not a state that occurs in-game.

1997 and the Year Pokemon Became a Phenomenon

The sticker dates to 1997, the same year the Pokemon anime launched on TV Tokyo — April 1, 1997 — and amplified what the games had started the year before. Pokemon Red and Green had arrived in Japanese stores in February 1996, but the anime turned the franchise into a nationwide phenomenon.

Critically, 1997 preceded Pokemon’s international expansion. The franchise reached North America in 1998 and Europe in 1999. Merchandise produced in this window was made exclusively for the Japanese domestic market, carrying Japanese text throughout — Machoke’s name appears on stickers from this period as “Goriky,” its Japanese designation, rather than the English name international fans know today.

Amada was among the most prolific licensees of the era, manufacturing stickers under official license from Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures. A serial number as high as No.270 reflects the series’ breadth — Amada produced multiple illustrated variants of the same character rather than one sticker per species, so the total catalogue ran well past 151.

Machoke and the Culture of Sticker Collecting

Machoke holds the middle position in one of the first generation’s three-stage Fighting-type lines: Machop (No.66) → Machoke (No.67) → Machamp (No.68). Its design — blue, powerfully built, with red armbands and a gold belt — is consistent across official depictions, including this sticker’s illustration.

In the early Pokemon anime, Machoke was associated with the Fighting-type Gym Leader, giving it regular on-screen appearances from the series’ first episodes. That consistent presence across the games, the anime, and the Pokemon Trading Card Game established it as one of the more recognized Fighting types from the first generation.

Amada’s sticker products belong to a Japanese tradition of children’s sticker collecting that the Bikkuri Man craze of the 1980s established as a cultural institution. Sold in toy stores, bookshops, and supermarkets in random-assortment packs priced within a child’s allowance, Amada’s Pokemon stickers carried a social dimension beyond the objects themselves — not knowing which sticker a pack held drove repeated purchases and classroom trading between classmates.